Just A Fling
by cobrafantasies
Summary: Joey and Chandler have been having a secret fling. How long can they go without truly talking about what this fling is?
1. Chapter 1

**Author:** Jen

 **Author's Note:** Fun, fluffy story. Hope you enjoy!

 **Disclaimer:** Unfortunately, I do not own anything or any of the characters

 **A/N:** Joey and Chandler have been having a secret fling. How long can they go without truly talking about what this fling is?

* * *

My eyes are opening to the morning sun. I feel warmth, a comfortable heat that – _oh shit._ I did it again - I'm spooning Joey.

I stay as still as possible as I see my arm and leg are clung over Joey's sleeping body.

See, Joey and I have been having a bit of a fling, if you will. It sort of just happened a few weeks ago and since then we hook up every night and end up waking up in the same bed every morning. Unfortunately, my stupid sleeping ass tends to occasionally wrap my limps around Joey in the middle of the night. Luckily, I don't believe he's aware since everytime it happens he's still asleep as I carefully unhook my body from his.

I successfully move back to my side of the bed, unattached from Joey.

I actually wouldn't mind a little cuddling, but I fear that might fall into relationship territory and I don't want to risk scaring Joey. I'm really enjoying this casual sex thing a lot – like a _whole_ lot. Joey is really good in bed, which I guess I should have known. But more than that, I like it because my trust level is so high with him that, for once, sex actually comes easily. I'm relaxed; I know I'm in good hands… mmhm his hands… I'm picturing where his hands were last night. My mind starts wandering when the body next to me starts shifting under the covers.

I look over and watch Joey throw his arm over his eyes to shield the sunlight that's beaming in from the window.

I wish I wasn't so attracted to him, I don't think I should enjoy waking up next to him as much as I secretly do.

Usually, in the week I'm already up and out the door for work, but since it's a weekend we usually start the morning off the same way we ended last night – sex, was that not clear?

I move my hand to his stomach, running my palm up his shirt until I reach his chest. His elbow lifts from his face so he can look over at me. He inhales a deep, sleepy breath as he rests his arm above his head now.

"Hey," he breathes in a raspy, morning tone.

I greet him by leaning over, placing a small peck on his lips. The moment I do this, Joey's suddenly awake. As he kisses me back, his hand finds my neck and he's deepening the intensity of his reciprocating kiss. He doesn't let me go and continues kissing me until I realize there's no turning back now, for him or me. He does this often; he takes an innocent kiss and turns it into a deep make-out session until we're suddenly naked and doing a lot more. Which is exactly how this morning pans out, not that I'm complaining.

After exhausting all of our morning arousal, we're lying in the bed resting once again.

I sit up.

"I'm gonna make breakfast," I state as I get out of bed.

"Really, pancakes?" Joey suddenly sits up enthusiastically.

I smile as I'm throwing some pants on.

"I guess so," I smirk.

I throw more clothes on before heading out to the kitchen and starting on the pancakes.

Joey finally arrives, clothed as well, and sits at the island.

I serve each of us a stack of three pancakes and Joey looks thrilled. He grabs the syrup and proceeds to drown his plate in it.

He cuts into a huge bite, taking pieces from all three pancakes and shoves the whole thing into his mouth. I shake my head as I carefully cut a human proportioned bite from my own plate.

"You make the best pancakes," Joey spits crumbs at me through his stuffed mouthful.

He sees me attempt to dodge his spitting attack.

"Oh sorry," he says carefully as he finishes his enormous mouthful.

"It's from a box, pretty simple," I respond to his compliment.

"Then, maybe it has to do with you working up my appetite so much," he grins impishly at me.

I can't help, but grin widely back at that comment.

"Alright, I can take credit for that," I sneer.

Joey leans over to my bar stool and wraps his arms around my lower waist. He pulls me towards him so my entire stool slides closer to his. It's scares me for a moment.

" _Joey_ ," I stress, but the bar stool glides safely over and sits steadily now.

Joey ignores my short-lived fret and kisses me with sugary lips. I lick my lips after he pulls back.

"Yum syrup," I sarcastically enjoy the transferred condiment.

Joey licks his own lips, trying to clean any other residue before leaning back in and kissing me again. This time he lingers and I already know where this is headed.

"You are the horniest person I've ever met," I remark, pulling back.

He grins at me.

"That's not true," he defends weakly.

"Yeah, that smirk is sure telling me otherwise," I mock.

"I never see you putting up much of a fight," he counters back.

I shrug.

"That's true, but this time it hasn't even been an hour," I remind him of our very recent morning romp.

"Yeah, but you made pancakes," he says as if this is an obvious move of seduction.

"Yes, speaking of I'd like to finish mine," I tell him.

"Alright, go ahead," he encourages, but his arms are still wrapped around my waist. I turn back to my plate and he rests his chin on my shoulder. He watches me take another bite of the pancakes.

"Okay, this isn't really ideal," I point out.

"What?" Joey plays dumb as he shifts his arms higher and then tightens his hold around me, limiting my movement even more

I bite my lip, trying not to smirk at his playfulness.

"You can't be the hungry and horny one."

"Why not?" he pouts.

I turn and opening smirk at him now.

How does he get me everytime?

"Dammit," I exhale as I lean in and grab his lips back to mine.

We're hardcore making-out when we hear a door close. We quickly pull apart just in time for Monica to walk through our door. We turn back to our pancakes, but we're both too flushed to start eating them again.

"Hey – you made pancakes? And you didn't invite me, geez how many time do I cook for you guys?" she suddenly accuses us.

"Sorry Mon, you can have some," I offer, pointing to the third plate on the counter with all the extras.

"Eh, I already ate," she sighs.

I see Joey starting to cut into his pancakes again and realize I should probably look like I'm actually eating too. I pick up my silverware and start cutting a new piece.

"So, anyway tonight is the big restaurant opening. You guys are still coming right?" she asks. Monica is the new chef at a brand new fancy restaurant. She invited us all for the big night and even made us a reservation.

"We wouldn't miss it," Joey perks up.

She smiles at us.

"Great, remember get there by eight," she reminds us.

We both nod and she turns to walk back out. I watch the door close behind her.

I look over and see Joey cramming a new forkful of pancakes into his mouth.

Of course, I'm still feeling the panic of nearly getting caught, but his appetite is perfectly fine.

"I'm showering," I grunt and walk to the bathroom.


	2. Chapter 2

It's nearly 7:45 and everyone is ready to go. Rachel, Ross and Phoebe knock on our door. I'm in my bedroom getting my shoes on so Joey answers the door.

"You guys ready?" I can hear Ross ask him.

Joey looks back at me in my room. My door is open, he can see I'm ready and I'm merely getting my shoes.

"Yeah, why don't you guys share a cab and Chandler and I will split one - we'll meet you there," Joey suggests.

"Alright," I hear Ross say.

I watch them all leave as Joey shuts the door behind them. I have both my shoes on now. I get up, turn my light off and walk out to the living room.

"I was ready," I tell Joey.

"I know," he says.

"So, we could've walked down with them."

Joey looks at me with a mischievous smile.

"But now we can be alone in the cab," he explains.

"Uh, the cab driver might be there. It's not like we can do anything," I warn him.

He gives me a foolish look.

"We can make-out," he argues.

"Joey, no that's awkward," I oppose.

I walk right past him so he hopefully gets the hint to forget this idea.

He follows me downstairs and helps me catch a cab. We get in and give the driver the address. The guy puts the car in drive and the second we start moving, Joey scoots right next to me in the backseat. I roll my eyes, secretly loving how much he's always all over me, but truthfully, it's uncomfortable to make-out in front of a stranger.

Joey breathes over my neck, not saying anything, just reminding me of his little idea. I stretch my neck towards the window, away from his asking lips. Next thing I know Joey's hand finds my knee and starts gliding slowly up my thigh. I swat his hand away and quickly study the driver's eyes in the rearview mirror to see if he's looking back at us. Luckily, the driver is focused on the road.

I turn to Joey and mouth "no" to him. He frowns at me. I look out the window, but I can feel Joey's fingers start to tug on my suit jacket. I go to slap his hand away again, but his hand soars from my jacket collar to my far cheek and he pulls my lips right to his. Of course, I'm going to fold now that he got me. How can I say no to his delicious lips. Even weeks into this, I still enjoy every second I get to kiss him, touch him – but not in the back of a cab. I pull back, widening my eyes at him, giving him a stern look. This doesn't even faze him.

I look to the small mirror again and see the driver's eyes are still forward.

Unfortunately, Joey barely breaks a second before his lips press against my neck.

He can't be serious. I quickly turn and grab his face in my hand.

He's smirking at me like a devious child.

" _Stop_ ," I whisper harshly and then point to the other side of the backseat.

Joey sighs and finally slumps back over, putting space between us again.

* * *

We get to the restaurant and meet up with our friends in time for our reservation. We get seated at a large table. I make an extra effort to sit away from Joey. I can't risk him trying any footsie ideas. It's a long, rectangular table, so by me sitting at the opposite end I can't even see Joey without leaning back or forward in my chair.

We all settle in to enjoy this night of Monica's food. It's delicious and great.

The night flies by until we're all being handed a dessert menu that's three pages long. I assume Joey will probably be ecstatic about this; I lean forward to sneak a peak at Joey when I find his chair empty.

"Where's Joey?" I ask Phoebe, who's sitting next to me.

"He's having some fun at the bar," she wiggles her eyebrows with a giggly voice.

"What?" I shake my head, shocked by this news.

"Yeah, he hit it off with one of the waitresses, they've over at the bar," she informs me and then proceeds to study her dessert menu.

I can barely move now. I stare down at my dessert menu so I don't look suspicious, but I'm too in shock to even focus my eyes or even think about food.

Joey's flirting with some waitress? He was just all over me in the cab. We had sex _this_ _morning_ – how could he do this? My head is spinning until I finally realize the cold, hard facts: we're not together; it's just a fling. No one even knows about it, in fact Joey and I never even talk about what we're doing.

I can't even bring this up to Joey, I have no argument. There's no reason he's not allowed to date or see other people.

The sad part is, I knew all this, I was never in denial. I never actually thought Joey and I were even remotely serious. I guess I was so happy having this casual thing and not thinking about the future I've become blind to reality. I didn't expect this at all.

Suddenly someone is calling my name. I look up and all my friends are staring at me.

"Chandler? Chandler, are you ordering any dessert?" Ross questions me and then points up to the waitress who is waiting for my decision. Clearly everyone already ordered and I was so in my own head I completely zoned out.

"Uh, no – no thank you."

I don't talk much for the rest of the dinner because Joey never returns to the table. He missed dessert for this woman.

* * *

I go home to an empty apartment.

I wish I could forget this entire night, but I can't and I also can't sleep. I'm sitting in a trance on the couch, literally staring at nothing, but the wall across the room. Unfortunately, I'm still sitting here when Joey finally comes home around one in the morning.

I watch him close the front door.

He turns and when he sees me on the couch he jumps a few feet back. His hand crosses his heart.

" _Jesus_ Chandler, what are you doing?" he huffs.

I don't say anything.

I thought the moment I saw him I would be angry or upset, but weirdly I'm not.

Joey walks over, confused by my silence.

"You okay man?" he asks.

Still no answer from me.

"Chandler, hello?" he asks and leans down to wave his hand in front of my face.

This is when I make my move. I grab his shirt collar and yank him onto the couch next to me. He falls easily from being too caught off guard.

I speedily climb on top of his lap. I'm not letting that dumb waitress be the last thing he thinks about before going to bed. I just want to show him what he's missing, but I don't even know how to do that. How can I really compete with some busty blonde?

I lean in and press my mouth harshly to his; hoping kissing him will clear my head for even a moment.

His eyebrows are raised. He looks like he's about to say something so I lean in and kiss him again. This time I slip my tongue into his mouth. His hands grip onto the seams of my shirt and I keep exploring his mouth with my tongue. When I pull back I can already feel he's hard – I told you he's always horny.

He lets out an excited breath from my attack.

"Wanna go to my room?" he smiles eagerly at me.

I shake my head no.

He looks lost.

"I'm not interested in being seconds," I say.

He stares at me, surprised I said it – so am I.

I slide off him and walk to my room. He doesn't follow me.

I shut my door and go to bed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's** **Note:** Hi everyone, yes I know you are all in shock I'm actually updating this story and yes this has taken forever. I honestly lost motivation to continue this story, but since quite a few people kept asking if I would continue I finally got back into it. So, hopefully I don't disappoint - enjoy!

* * *

So, I guess I do care. If I'm angry enough to _not_ sleep with Joey all because he went home with a waitress, then I care too much to be casually hooking up with him. It worries me, I tell myself it's because Joey's my best friend and since I can't get anyone else I'm jealous he's going off sleeping with other people instead of only hooking up with me.

I avoid Joey the next day not because I'm mad at him, but rather I'm embarrassed. Hooking up isn't supposed to mean anything and I threw myself at him and then rejected him all in a matter of seconds - thanks to jealously. I have no right to be jealous unless I have feelings for him. Which I clearly don't - I think I would know if I liked my best friend. I don't know what to say so I don't say much of anything to him. Luckily, being at work for over eight hours makes that pretty easy. Still, I guess Joey notices my off-behavior towards him. He finally approaches me Tuesday after work.

"Hey," Joey greets me, coming out of his room.

"Hey", I respond as I grab a drink from the fridge.

"So, I got two Rangers tickets for tonight's game," he says, holding up the tickets.

"Oh - cool," I say, unsure if he's inviting me or just sharing the news.

"Meaning you're invited - if you wanna go," he clarifies. His voice sounds hesitant this whole interaction.

I hesitate at the idea of being alone with Joey for a few hours.

"Okay - sure," I agree realizing there's no good reason I would refuse a free game - one that I'm usually thrilled to attend.

"Okay great, we can leave at six," he says sounding more like his normal self again.

I open a can of soda and take a few sips while watching Joey take a seat at the island.

"Any special occasion?" I ask out of curiosity.

He shrugs and a look of worry washes over his face again.

"No, I just thought it would be fun to go," he claims.

"Alright, you just don't normally get tickets so last minute - or pay for them actually, I'm usually treating," I point out, still wondering why he would be acting weird when I should be the embarrassed one.

"Yeah, well that's why I figured I should treat you and you know, I wasn't sure if you were mad at me," he finally confesses the cause of his uneasiness.

"No - I'm not," I quickly deny his very understandable assumption.

Luckily, Joey just accepts this and doesn't press anymore.

* * *

Joey and I get to the game and I still feel funny being alone with him. I should have thought this through and offered to buy a third ticket for Ross. It's too late now.

"Hey, you hungry? I was thinking of getting some food," Joey asks immediately after we get to our seats.

"Nah, I'm okay for now thanks," I comment.

Joey gets up to head up to the concession stands and then stops.

He sits back down.

"What happened?"

He looks at me with a guilty grin.

"I uh, don't have any more money on me. I spent it all on the tickets," he explains.

I instantly reach for my wallet.

"No, I don't want you to pay I'm supposed to be treating you," he tries to stop me.

I open my wallet and take out two twenty dollar bills.

"Joey, I'm not gonna let you starve," I argue and hand him the money.

He smiles and takes the money.

"Thanks, I'll pay you back," he says.

He won't. I snicker to myself as he rushes off to get food.

Joey returns with a hotdog, nachos, two slices of pizza and a beer. Of course, he spent all the money I gave him when I was expecting change. But I see the two slices of pizza and stupidly make a wrong assumption.

"You got me a slice?"

"Oh, I thought you didn't want anything?" Joey freezes.

I shake my head - it's so typical I have to laugh.

"I didn't," I confirm.

"You can have it - here," Joey insists, handing me one of the slices.

"I'm fine, really," I decline.

"You're not hungry?" he inquires.

"Uh, not so much," I admit and then worry he'll connect the dots and realize I don't have an appetite because I find it awkward being alone with him after what happened. Then I remember it's Joey, the dots never connect.

The game begins and Joey is digging into his food. He also begins spitting everywhere as he proceeds to shout at the players, like every other fan, but with mouthfuls of food. I thoroughly attempt to dodge all his spitting, which he doesn't even notice is happening. He goes through all his food pretty quickly except for the one slice of pizza which he continues to leave untouched as the rest of his food is now gone. This isn't like Joey at all and that's when I realize he's still saving it for me even though I said I didn't want it.

"Joey, you can eat the pizza," I finally say to him after it's been sitting on his lap for ten minutes.

He looks down at the slice and then back at me.

"I don't want it," he claims.

"Yeah _right_ ," I narrow my eyes at him in disbelief.

He tries not to smile.

"You should eat something," he says.

I am actually starting to feel hungry so I finally give in.

"Fine."

I take the paper plate with the slice on it and take a large bite.

Joey's beaming with a wide smile - too wide.

"Why are you so happy I'm eating pizza?" I smirk through my bite because he won't stop smiling.

"I'm just glad you're not mad at me," he replies.

My stomach drops a bit at this comment. Why did he still think I was mad at him?

"I told you I wasn't," I say, swallowing my large bite.

He nods.

"I know, but you're not a great liar," he tells me.

I immediately get defensive.

"So, I was lying before, but this bite of pizza told you the truth?" I debate.

"Well, you know..." he hints with a knowing expression.

I shake my head.

"No, I don't know - what?"

"You took my seconds, so we're even."

I freeze the moment it comes out of his mouth.

I throw the plate of pizza back at him and quickly get up and run up the stands.

"Chandler?" I hear behind me.

I can see Joey following me, but I don't stop. I need to run away - this is all I have been trying to avoid. I feel sick and embarrassed and angry.

I run until I find a bathroom.

Joey follows me in.

"Chandler - hey what's going on?" Joey presses as we stand awkwardly in the bathroom.

A man is washing his hands. The stranger grabs a paper towel and then walks by us, leaving the bathroom. The bathroom seems to be empty now.

"Nothing, I'm not feeling well. Can you leave me alone for a literal second!" I lash out unexpectedly.

Joey is stunned by my dramatic reaction.

"Was it what I said - I thought-"

"No, just forget what you said - forget everything!" I yell and in my head I'm talking about our little fling. I'm done, officially, and I'm trying to tell him without telling him. I never want to talk about anything surrounding the topic anymore.

Joey looks confused of course and I'm sure I have to make things more clear for him, but I can't say the words. The words won't come out, I don't even know why I'm so angry, why I'm so emotional. None of this should matter. It's all for fun, even if I want to stop hooking up with him, it shouldn't be this big of a deal.

But that's the problem, the real problem is I don't want to stop. I know it's bad for me, I know I'm not someone who can handle a fling and yet here I am standing in front of Joey not able to tell him we need to stop.

Instead, I do the opposite of everything I'm trying to say, everything I'm trying to avoid.

I lean in and kiss him.


	4. Chapter 4

So, I'm the weakest person ever. But honestly, what was I supposed to do? Joey was standing in front of me staring at me with his lips and his little worried face and I'm expected to tell him I never want to touch him again and that I never want to kiss him again? That's a blatant lie!

So, I'm kissing Joey in the hockey stadium bathroom and I'm loving it. He's kissing me back, he's not even hesitating and neither am I.

I push him against the wall because I need to get my lips against his even harder.

Don't worry, we don't do it in the bathroom. People start coming in and Joey and I quickly disperse and exit the public bathroom.

We leave the game early.

We don't say a word the entire cab ride home.

We don't say a word hurrying up the stairs to our apartment.

We don't say a word as we lock the door and rip our clothes off, making our way to the bedroom.

* * *

I wake up the next morning with, once again, my arm and leg wrapped around Joey - _literally everytime._

I roll my eyes at myself before carefully unwrapping my limbs from his sleeping body.

"Where you going?" A raspy whisper suddenly asks me. I look over and see Joey wide awake, asking me why I'm unsnuggling him. He's okay with this? Does he know about all the other times?

"Sorry, I move a lot in my sleep," I reason.

"I know," he states calmly.

"You do?" I ask, still unsure if he's aware my body has been wrapped around him every morning for this entire past month.

"Yeah, I don't know why you always go back to your side it's a lot warmer with you half on top of me," he smirks.

I should be thrilled he is saying this to me, but instead I start blushing and feel my face turn to a tomato. I look away, even more embarrassed he can see my reddening face.

"Oh, well I didn't want to scare you," I finally explain.

"Chandler we do a lot more naked, I think I can handle a little cuddling," he chuckles lightly.

So, this entire time I could have been basking in the morning sun curled within Joey's body heat and instead I cursed myself every morning for my sleep hugging.

Of course, now I start overthinking everything. Is cuddling just part of the casual hooking up criteria is for Joey or is he okay with cuddling because he's thinking about us being more than just friends and hook up buddies?

All I'm overthinking everything, I suddenly wonder if Joey woke up every morning I was curled around him, even on work days? That's when my stomach drops and my eyes widen. I turn and look to see it's 9:30am and it's Wednesday!

"Oh shit! My alarm didn't go off, I'm late for work!" I yell, jumping out of bed.

I run and get ready faster than I ever have in my life. I run out the door, grab a cab and hurry to my office.

* * *

I'm so overwhelmed and flustered that I slept in and got to work an hour late that I don't think about my morning with Joey until I'm heading home again at 5.

I'm walking up the stairs to our building when I remember everything that happened before I had a heart attack this morning.

I walk into the apartment and see Joey on the couch reading some magazine.

He jumps up from the couch when he sees me and walks over to the kitchen.

"Hey, how was work - was your boss mad?" He instantly questions with a face of sorrow.

"Not too bad, I lied and said that I got sick and was in the bathroom for an hour this morning. He dropped it after that," I shrug with a small smile.

"Oh, nice lie," he comments.

"See, I can lie," I say without thinking and then realize I just brought up our conversation from the Rangers game which we truthfully never finished - and I don't want to finish.

"Well, maybe I can make it up to you," Joey thankfully disregards my comment.

I raise my eyebrows at him.

"Well, it wasn't your fault. I'm sure I forgot to even set my alarm so it's actually positively my fault," I tell him.

"Yeah, but I'm the reason you forgot," he points out.

That makes me smile, sex with Joey was definitely worth being late to work, even if I am still confused by our situation.

"Still, you don't have to make it up to me, it's my job," I argue, leaving out the other fact that I made the move on him yesterday.

"Well, I want to. How about dinner tonight - you hungry?" he offers.

I stand still, surprised at his offer.

Is he just being nice? Is this a date?

No, don't think that way Chandler - this is a casual dinner with your best friend who you just happen to be hooking up with! Get it together!

"Oh, so you want to go out to eat?" I clarify.

"Yeah," he nods, smiling.

"Well, Uh.." I stutter still picturing it as a date. "But you paid for the Rangers tickets. I don't want you spending more, I know you're tight on money," I finally find a reason to back out.

"But good news for you, I got paid today," he proudly states.

"You should spend the money on yourself - and on rent," I debate logically.

"Chandler, come on I want to make it up to you and I want to take you out," he persists.

I freeze at the words "take you out". I won't be able to go on without figuring out what this all means. He just keeps adding my my confusion and my head is spinning.

"Out - like a date?" I finally say the words out loud.

"Uh... well, um-" he hesitates.

I panic.

"No, I didn't think it was either, I just wanted to make sure because I signed up for a casual agreement you know and we're friends so I just thought for a moment it sounded weird when you said it. But good, good I'm glad we're on the same page," I spit out a thread of lies to cover up my embarrassment.

Joey looks lost, he's unsure what to say.

"Phew, so let's go I guess - I mean if you still want to, I don't need to go to dinner. We can order in pizza like pals - cause we are and pizza is something we always do," I continue to ramble on like an idiot.

My face is red again - am I sweating?

Joey shakes his head finally finding words again.

"No, I want to go out for dinner. I'm treating - seriosuly," he kidding warns me since I ended up buying him food at the hockey game he was treating me for.

I just nod, hoping to avoid another pathetic rambling of word vomit.

We leave to go to dinner.


	5. Chapter 5

Joey and I get to a local restaurant and get seated at a table. I'm still beating myself up over how many stupid things I said in the spand of five minutes and how awkward I officially made things. I thought it was bad the night of Monica's restaurant opening and now I've made everything progressively worse each proceeding night.

We're looking over our menus and Joey looks completely fine, comfortable even. I admit that's better than him being weirded out, but it also confirms more that he was never interested in taking things any further than a hook up. It reminds me I need to end things, but I realize I'm out for a free dinner and I would really like to go home and peel off each article of Joey's clothing one by one. So, I'm thinking that conversation can wait.

Joey and I order and Joey continues to act like nothing weird happened at the apartment before. So, I attempt to make things even more normal and ask him about the waitress. I typically would ask him about a date even if it was a one night stand and being that I'm planning on stopping our whole fling, I saw no harm in bringing this up. Unfortunately, the second I mention her Joey's face goes white and he looks like he's been caught cheating. I'm surprised by his reaction.

"Erm, yeah that didn't work out," he coughs uncomfortably at my simple question.

"Oh, okay sorry I asked," I feel the need to apologize. Normally he doesn't get so worked up about women, maybe he actually liked her or something?

"Don't be, it didn't mean anything anyway," he adds.

"Right," I reply and then look back down at my menu to avoid saying anymore.

"I actually wanted to-" Joey begins saying something, but the waiter walks up to our table in this moment and interrupts him.

Joey lets our waiter takes our orders and when he leaves I wait for Joey to continue his last thought, but he doesn't. I would ask what he was about to say, but I don't really want to return to the topic of the waitress - although I'm not even sure if his interrupted thought was related.

Joey and I continue on through the dinner pretty normally. Our conversations are typical and when the bill comes, Joey actually follows through and pays for the entire meal.

Joey and I catch a taxi ride home and I notice that Joey keeps glancing over at me throughout the ride. Every time I look back at him, he shyly smiles and then looks away. I find it a bit strange, but I blame myself figuring it's probably about one of the dumb things I've said tonight.

We get up to the apartment and again Joey keeps looking at me. Maybe he's debating if he's allowed to make a move. If that's the case, it's an easy answer - yes. In fact, I'm heavily counting on sex tonight since in my mind it might be our last time.

Joey and I take our coats off and there's still an awkwardness in the air. Maybe I should just make the move to get things going. I don't know why he's being so hesitant especially when we hooked up last night no problem. It must of been one of the things I said tonight. I mean I asked him if tonight was a date. What was I thinking?

"So, uh I was thinking of washing my sheets tomorrow," I announce abruptly.

Joey's eyebrows scrunch together.

"Sooo, I can get them dirty tonight," I clarify. Yes, ladies and gentlemen that was meant to be a pick-up line. That's how much of a dork I am, but give me a break, I'm horny and normally it never takes any effort to get Joey moving.

"Oh," he sneers at my lame attempt.

I wait and he's still not coming any closer. I take a few steps towards him wondering what his deal is. I hope he doesn't want to end things now, I planned for this last night and now I want it too much, he has to give me this last time.

"So, we are still doing the whole... casual thing?" he finally speaks and I'm caught off guard by his question.

"Uh, I thought so- are we not?" I ask uneasily.

We've never really talked about this, certainly _he_ hasn't. I've now said some things I regret, but it feels so strange hearing him say it.

"We can, I just - you mentioned a date before," he starts and I panic again at my mistake from earlier.

"No, I didn't mean it like that. I honestly don't know why I said that. I get it, this is just a fling, it's casual, I get it. You don't have to worry, _really_ ," I spit out nervously.

He takes a moment to respond which isn't good for my current anxiety.

"I'm not worried," he states.

 _What does that mean?_ A million questions are now circling my brain.

"Okay... good," I answer, still confused.

"Would it worry _you_?" he asks.

"What?"

"If I thought tonight was a date?"

Now, I'm really confused. He can't be serious can he? Everything he's done up until this point told me he never wanted anything more than sex. Is this really happening? I feel my heart start racing.

"I... I... wouldn't be actually," I admit.

"Are we saying what I think we're saying?" he asks.

I have no idea what we're saying, I've been confused for days, I'm not saying it!

"I don't know, what are _you_ saying?" I throw it back to him.

"I'm saying, I uh... think I don't want just a fling... anymore," he admits.

My eyes widen. I can't believe this is happening.

"Do you want just a fling?" Joey nervously asks.

Am I really about to date my best friend?

I swallow a nervous lump in my throat, Joey waits for my answer.

I shake my head.

 _Heck yeah, I'm about to date my best friend!_

I answer the best way I know how, I run over and ram my lips into his.

He kisses me back, wrapping his arms around me.

"Is that a yes?" he asks.

"Yes, you idiot. It's a big, fat yes - I like you," I say as clear as day and kiss him again.

He laughs against my lips, kissing me back.

He picks me up and carries me to my bedroom to dirty my sheets, but _not_ for the last time.

i wake up the next morning not just curled next to Joey or have a half an arm or leg hanging over him, I'm full on snuggled against him with half my body intertwined with his. For once, I don't wake up anxious or disappointed in myself, I just wake up happy.

I cant believe I'm dating my best friend, I'm dating Joey - I love it.

* * *

 _The End._


End file.
